gnuite
2006-01-18, 01:41
DejaDesktop (http://www.dejadesktop.com/) has released DejaPIM Build 215. The Build Change and Update List (http://www.dejadesktop.com/buildchangeLINK.html) as linked from their download page is pretty sparse (read: 404), but one change that I've noticed is an implementation of appointment alarms.
Alarms take the form of a pop-up dialog box informing you of your appointment's subject and the time of the appointment. Alarms are pretty crippled so far:
1. They do not make a sound.
2. They only work when DejaPIM is running (perhaps understandable), but DejaPIM can be minimized or otherwise running in the background.
3. They only occur once per event - if you change the time of an event to a later date after its alarm has already went off, it does not alarm again.
4. They do not wake the device from "sleep" (inactivity turning off the screen) or from "standby" (placing the device in its aluminum case, causing the screen/wifi to turn off). Manual wakening, however, reveals that the alarm does happen (the pop-up dialog box is the first thing you see).
#1 is pretty debilitating for me - I need the alarm to notify me audibly in case I'm not looking at the screen. But it's still a step ahead of GPE-Calendar, which can't even mark an event as needing an alarm without crashing the app.
#4 means that I pretty much have to be actively using the device if I want to be alarmed. Unfortunately, I'm not browsing the web on my Nokia 770 24/7.
The only real use of alarms is to be able to quickly turn on the device and see if there are any reminders without having to bring the DejaPIM application to the foreground.
I'm hoping that the alarms become more sophisticated in future releases. Releases, by the way, seem to be coming out about twice a week.
Alarms take the form of a pop-up dialog box informing you of your appointment's subject and the time of the appointment. Alarms are pretty crippled so far:
1. They do not make a sound.
2. They only work when DejaPIM is running (perhaps understandable), but DejaPIM can be minimized or otherwise running in the background.
3. They only occur once per event - if you change the time of an event to a later date after its alarm has already went off, it does not alarm again.
4. They do not wake the device from "sleep" (inactivity turning off the screen) or from "standby" (placing the device in its aluminum case, causing the screen/wifi to turn off). Manual wakening, however, reveals that the alarm does happen (the pop-up dialog box is the first thing you see).
#1 is pretty debilitating for me - I need the alarm to notify me audibly in case I'm not looking at the screen. But it's still a step ahead of GPE-Calendar, which can't even mark an event as needing an alarm without crashing the app.
#4 means that I pretty much have to be actively using the device if I want to be alarmed. Unfortunately, I'm not browsing the web on my Nokia 770 24/7.
The only real use of alarms is to be able to quickly turn on the device and see if there are any reminders without having to bring the DejaPIM application to the foreground.
I'm hoping that the alarms become more sophisticated in future releases. Releases, by the way, seem to be coming out about twice a week.